Your Right to Know

In
her latest criticism of the federal health-care law, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said yesterday she fears
the state will have “little control” over mandated health-insurance exchanges, whether they are
implemented by the federal government or the Kasich administration.

In a speech at noon to members of the Columbus Association of Health Underwriters, Taylor said, “
At the end of the day, regardless of … federal-run exchange or state-run exchange, I feel we’re
going to have little control in the decisions that we need to make to do what’s best for Ohio and
do what’s best for Ohio consumers.”

Taylor is a regular critic of the federal health-care law, which she derides as “Obamacare.” In
her role as head of the Ohio Department of Insurance, she is responsible for crafting the federally
mandated health-insurance exchange. But she and other Kasich administrators say Washington has been
unclear about what benefits must be covered in plans offered through such exchanges.

In November, Taylor co-sponsored a resolution encouraging the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services and Congress to change a provision in the federal law that could negatively affect
health-insurance agents and brokers. She said insurance agents and brokers provide a valuable
service to their clients

“They’re able to work with consumers when they’re trying to make decisions about the type of
coverage that works best for them, their family or their small business,” she said in an interview
after the speech at the Pontifical College Josephinum on the Far North Side.

Taylor’s remarks came a week after minority Democrats in the General Assembly introduced
legislation to create the Ohio Health Benefit Exchange Agency, a quasi-governmental body that would
set up the exchange. In June, the Kasich administration is supposed to enact a law instituting a
statewide exchange. Otherwise, federal law permits the federal government to establish an exchange
for Ohio.

Chris Heiberger, Columbus Association of Health Underwriters president, said he would support a
state-based exchange but is leery of the impact of new federal regulations on jobs in the private
health-care sector.

“Not only does it damage all those companies and businesses that are working in that industry
within Ohio, it puts a lot of people out of jobs.” Heiberger said. “I think those are things we
feel are most frustrating.

“We want to be able to continue to have a vibrant private health insurance market. The law is
the law. We may not all agree with it, but it’s here.”

Deanna Pan is a fellow in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau.